Errr..... Rafe... I am not sure your death rate for F1 in the seventies is anywhere NEAR correct. The death rate was for the WHOLE YEAR ..... or in your example OVER TEN YEARS including all pratice session conducted AWAY form the specific race tracks and NOT just for a single event.... which is the TT equivalent.
Secondly.... when it became obvious that a number of F1 circuits could NOT be made safer, then they WERE 'banned' (dropped). I am NOT trying to BAN motorcycle racing which is the EQUIVALENT to you suggesting that F1 'should' have been banned. I am talking about a S*P*E*C*I*F*I*C race. When equivalently 'lethal' circuits became obvious (e.g., Nurburgring) we DID drop them, INSTANTLY!
Finally, back in the 1970's it became UTTERY OBVIOUS that the death rate could NOT be allowed to continue and, kicking an screaming, F1 was F*O*R*C*E*D to CHANGE. If that HAD happened to the IOM TT and we HAD seen an equivalent reduction in numbers of deaths.... then NO ONE could have objected to the IOM TT continuing...... the problem is that it HAS NOT!
Just remember that Ayrton was the last to die in F1.... so far..... and that was 1994 which is thus ZERO deaths in the last EIGHTEEN years and that's been at 30 odd race tracks and 17 times per year. In that time, roughly THIRTY SIX have been killed at a SINGLE track on the IOM at a SINGLE event!
How the hell CAN you support that situation?????
The death rate at the IOM is so VASTLY in excess of any OTHER sporting event that it is HIDEOUS!
Ian
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